Samurai PIXAL
by Candaru
Summary: SPOILERS FOR S7. PIXAL has been living on the Destiny's Bounty for a long time- and she's tired of being ignored. Set in a post season-7 AU, in which Master Wu is found before the destiny of the new Samurai X is revealed. Some mentioned clips of the show out of order, if you squint. Rated T for death mention. COVER ART BY SPHOR-ART ON TUMBLR (though not canon to the fic)!
1. Jay

Two weeks. I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty for two weeks.

And already Jay's tactic of _pestering_ me into telling my identity was on the verge of actually working.

"You gonna tell me who you are?"

I replied with the same deadpan tone I always used with him.

"No."

I watched him tap his fork on his plate in frustration from across the table. All the other ninja sat around him, busily chowing down on Zane's cooking. Most of them were pretending to be uninterested in me, but I caught frequent glances my way. Ever since Sensei Wu had offered me a place on the Bounty, they'd been going crazy trying to find out who I was— asking me questions on personal preferences, whispering theories to each other when they thought I wasn't in earshot, and dropping not-so-subtle hints that I should take off my helmet.

"You know, this Lobster Thermidor is _really_ good," Jay said, taking a big bite of his dinner. His eyes sparkled with mischief. "You should try some."

"No."

"Aw, come on. You never eat when we're around, and we're almost _always_ around, so I know you must be hungry." He waved some around on his fork as if trying to tantalize me with the meal. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stifling a laugh.

"Besides, it's pretty hot in here. I bet you'd be lot cooler taking off that helmet to eat some of this delicious food…"

"No."

"Aw, come on!" he exclaimed in frustration. "This is ZANE'S cooking. If this doesn't tempt you, what will!?"

"Maybe he's never had Zane's cooking before," Cole said casually, breaking his concentration from his own food.

"I have no doubt that your friend's cooking is more than satisfactory," I said, my voice flat and monotone. Honestly, if they were paying attention, they should've been able to figure out my identity from my tone of voice alone.

"Yeah, but have you ever _tasted_ it?" Jay asked, waggling his eyebrows. He could be darned annoying, but he was also funnier than people gave him credit for.

"No."

"Ah-HAH!" he exclaimed in triumph. "So you haven't ever been with us on a night Zane was cooking!" He across the table at the red-clad ninja. "Kai, who does that cross off the list?"

"No one except your parents," Kai said in a faked I-don't-care-about-this-conversation voice. I resisted correcting him.

"So you're not my parents, eh?" Jay asked me. "Then maybe you're… A DIFFERENT adult!" he exclaimed. Nya, who was sitting next to him, raised her eyebrows.

"Um, Jay? _We're_ adults," she reminded him.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that Samurai X 2.0 is!" he said. "For all we know, he could be that kid from the hospital! The mech would allow him to walk even though he usually needs a wheelchair! Or heck, he could even be the mailman!" With every new theory, he grew more and more excited.

"The _mailman?"_ Lloyd asked in disbelief.

"Sure, why not? He's followed us great distances, survived multiple attacks on Ninjago… he's fit enough to be the newest Samurai, with those skills!" he said.

"Or _he_ could also be a _she,"_ Nya said, a bit defensively. "Never forget who the _original_ Samurai X turned out to be." The word "original" seemed to be directed more at me than at Jay.

"Of course, of course," he said, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "It's just that we know a lot more boys than girls. So unless SOMEbody wants to tell us what pronouns we should be using…" he looked at me hopefully.

"No."

"Fine," he huffed. "Then I'm continuing to call him a him."

The rest of the dinner went pretty much the exact same way. Jay _was_ annoying, but I had to admit that I liked the attention. I mean, it was pretty much the main reason for my staying on the Bounty in the first place. And besides, the ninja were nowhere close to guessing my secret identity, so it would be up to me when to reveal it. I liked having that kind of control.

 _Especially over Nya,_ I thought, stealing a glance at her while she was preoccupied. _Doesn't feel so good to have somebody else stealing all the attention, now does it?_

After the long nightly interrogation that we called dinner, Lloyd and Nya started clearing away the dishes while the other ninja headed back to their rooms. I spotted Zane detouring to go fold the laundry, and realized that I needed to seize the chance to catch him alone. As the others left, I hastily pulled the napkin I'd been concealing in my suit's hidden storage unit (Nya was the type of person to sew secret pockets onto a dress, which I had to respect) and "accidentally" bumped into Zane as I brushed by him, pressing the napkin into his hands in the process. I desperately hoped that he didn't ask me about it out loud, despite the look of confusion on his face.

I continued walking at a brisk pace back to the guest quarters, not allowing myself to look back. I knew Zane would see the message on the napkin. And I knew he'd read the words "Meet me on deck tonight when others are asleep. Be quiet" scrawled in binary code.

I just had to hope that he followed my instructions.


	2. Zane

Two weeks and one day. I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty for two weeks and one day and I still had not told my boyfriend that I was there.

I breathed in the night air outside, which I personally thought was too cold. Not that the sensation bothered me; I just worried that the Samurai X gear's joints might lock up. _After all, some metal contracts in the cold_ , I thought. Well, I'd just have to hope Nya knew what she was doing when she built the suit… I was pretty sure I remembered her using it in the snow at some point, so a little chill was probably fine.

A faint blue light behind me let me know that my awaited guest had stepped onto the deck. I turned around to see Zane standing, not threateningly, but wielding a pair of nunchucks. I looked him up and down approvingly.

"Glad to see you decided to think things through before rushing out to meet a strange samurai on your own," I said. My words were sincere— Zane was often too gullible and kind for his own good. Apparently I'd been a good influence on him.

"Why did you ask me to meet you here?" he asked warily. "And why did you write the message in code?"

"Oh, not you, too," I sighed. "Please tell me you at least have an _attogram_ of an idea who I am."

He hesitated. "I… I had a theory, but I'm not sure I have sufficient evidence to support it. That is to say, I don't know how it would work…"

That was good enough for me. I switched my voice mod so that it matched my original voice.

"Numbers aren't everything, Zane. You should know that."

His smile was worth gold. The nindroid ran forward and pulled me into a hug.

"P.I.X.A.L.!" he cried, struggling to but successfully picking up the heavy suit of armor which my voice emanated from. "You're okay!"

"Of course I am," I said, but his words made me happy. I missed getting to talk to him without a guise. "How did you _think_ I knew the first line of code for a nindroid?"

He put me down as curiosity filled his blue eyes. I frequently admired how his father— a man with so few resources— had so skillfully crafted something of such beauty.

"Yes, all information I possessed pointed to you being the owner of the suit— but when did you have the time to not only steal it from the Samurai X cave, but repair it? And how are you manipulating it? You have no body to carry it with."

I looked down, a tiny bit upset at the answers to his questions. "Nya… well, she isn't the best at repairing electronics. You'll recall that she was going to try to fix you by giving you a new binary power cord. I was barely able to take control of your body for long enough to 'borrow' her suit and transfer my neurochip over to this suit while she was preoccupied. I altered the it's design later, per her request for me to change the color scheme. Now the suit _is_ my body," I explained. I pressed the button which I'd been so carefully protecting for the past couple of weeks and my visor was lifted, revealing nothing but empty space inside the helmet. I then quickly returned it to its original position, since I couldn't exactly see without it.

Zane's face turned crestfallen. "Isn't that… uncomfortable?" he asked. I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I gave a kind of half-shrug: a gesture I'd picked up from Cole. I certainly preferred my old body, but it _was_ nice being physical and being able to walk around and do things on my own.

"Well, as long as you are safe. Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" he asked.

"I never had the chance. I still do not wish the others to know, so I had to get you alone without attracting attention," I explained.

"How come you are hiding your identity, anyway?" he asked. He looked sincerely concerned, and I couldn't really blame him. If I were him, I'd probably assume that I was being tracked by someone. In reality, my reason for keeping my true self a secret was really rather pitiful. But Zane would probably scold me if he knew that, so…

"Just trust me. I'll tell them when the time is right, but not now."

He hesitated. "That does not seem wise. Please, what is your reason?"

"Zane, literally _any_ time you have tried to contradict me in the past, it has ended in disaster," I retorted. He opened his mouth to refute my statement, but then closed it and smiled. My statistics were accurate.

I'll admit, I felt a little guilty for playing that card, especially because I really _didn't_ have a logical reason. But I doubted he would understand my position— he was too nice for that. He never held a grudge. So I let the issue drop.

"Well, as long as you promise me to stay safe." He pulled me into another hug, which I happily accepted.

"We should probably get back to bed," I said. "We've been outside for a while. And I would rather not be caught talking to you alone."

He nodded. "Sensei is always watching."

We were silent for a moment, and then I burst out laughing. "Sensei is always watching" was one of the many private jokes we shared from my time spent on his hard drive. I grinned— I'd missed my nindroid.

"I'll take you back to your quarters," he offered, holding out his arm to escort me. And so, after ensuring that nobody was lurking the halls of the ship, we returned to our respective rooms.


	3. Kai and Lloyd

Three and a half weeks.

"Three and a half weeks you have been living on the Destiny's Bounty," Sensei was saying, "and I am afraid the time has come for me to ask a favor of you."

His voice sounded… reprimanding? Guilty? Cautious? The only appropriate phrase I could think of was "treading lightly." Yet I couldn't think of a single reason why he should seem so. I hadn't done anything wrong, and if Wu had spotted me talking to Zane outside he certainly wouldn't have waited a week and a half to talk to me about it. Would he? I desperately hoped not— all the other ninja were with us.

"While I do always try to open my home to those who need it," Wu started again, "I must request that everyone here does their fair share." He turned slightly towards Lloyd. "Even Lloyd had to aid the others when he first came to live with us, and he was not even a ninja at the time."

Oh! So he just wanted me to help with chores. I felt a wave of relief wash over me— I had no qualms about helping the others with their work. In fact, part of my circuitry had been itching for something to _do_ rather than just stand around all day. After all, I was built to assist.

"Of course," I said, bowing my head.

Sensei Wu looked slightly surprised that I hadn't even hesitated. "Very well. Then today, you shall be helping Kai and Lloyd repair the training machines on the deck."

"Wait, he's coming with us?" Kai said, sounding a bit upset. He quickly composed himself. "I mean, uh, why didn't you tell us about this earlier?"

Not really answering the question, Wu motioned toward the other ninja. "Nya, Jay, and Cole are all already working together on the chores _inside_ the ship. It is only fair that you two receive the extra help on your job." Then he turned and walked away, not needing to say anything else before everyone started heading toward their respective chores.

It occurred to me that Kai did not want me interfering with the scarce amount of time he was allotted to be alone with Lloyd, and I did feel a tiny bit guilty. I knew that he treasured his younger brother figure greatly, and I valued that in him. However, I could not feel the same sympathy for Lloyd himself— I had heard through snippets of conversations how the green ninja had acted when Zane died, and I was not easily able to forgive him for his lack of empathy.

"So…" Kai said once we had dragged out the machines to be repaired. I guessed that since I was there, he was trying to make the best of it by getting more intel on me, which was a guess soon validated.

"I was wondering what you thought of my sister's suit," he asked, trying to keep his tone as casual as possible. Lloyd worked silently beside him opening the panel of one of the broken totems. Lloyd, as far as I could figure, was the only person legitimately uninterested in my hidden identity. For that, I didn't blame him— he had other things on his mind. Still, I kept my eyes open for any quick glances my way, as I often received from Kai, Jay, Nya, and Cole.

I suddenly realized I hadn't answered Kai's question.

"Clearly I find it suitable enough to fight and walk around in," I responded.

"Yea, but do you just find it 'suitable?' Or would you say 'extraordinary?' My sister's a pretty good blacksmith, you know," he said. I thought it was sweet he stood up for her.

"She's a decent blacksmith," I replied, handing Lloyd a screwdriver he was motioning for, "but she's rather inadequate in her knowledge of technology." I wasn't being too overt by drawing attention to that, was I? Nah. Kai hadn't even figured out the identity of the first Samurai X after living with her his entire life. He wasn't going to figure out mine.

Kai himself looked a bit offended at my evaluation on his sister's abilities. "I'll have you know that my sister built all of her mech by herself, and most of ours. All those vehicles we ride around in? That's all her handiwork," he said. He looked at me, daring me to disagree.

"She is still unaware of many of the newer technological advances and their workings," I said, keeping my voice deadpan. "She has much to learn if she wishes to advance her skills."

"Well, I think—" Kai started, but Lloyd cut him off.

"Nya is good at what she does," he said, "but everyone can improve. You can't deny that, Kai."

The red ninja went silent and the next few minutes of repair went by without any further conversation. I appreciated Lloyd standing up for me, but I honestly wanted Kai to keep talking. There was something illogically satisfying about watching others try to guess your secret. Especially when said others had spent well over a year ignoring your existence and were now obsessed with it. So I was almost relieved when he said—

"So how do you like the Destiny's Bounty?"

"It's a well-repaired ship," I responded. I swear I heard Kai mumble "yea, at this point it's doing better than Jaya," but that wouldn't have made any sense. I'd known Kai for a long time— well, known him second-hand, anyhow— and he'd never mentioned a "Jaya" in my presence. The only ships I knew of being in the ninjas' care were the Destiny's Bounty (which truthfully had taken a very long time to repair and still had many broken pieces, such as the training machines we were working on) and the smaller Destiny's Shadow, which was only used for small group missions.

The rest of the hours passed mostly in the same way, with Kai asking me semi-personal questions (but not really any that would help him discover my identity), and me answering them in the same monotone voice. I considered switching the voice mod at one point just to mess with him, but then I realized Nya had likely already told him about my ability to mimic anyone's vocal range.

Speaking of Nya, almost all of his questions ended up involving her at one point or another, which ticked me off. I knew that he was her brother, but didn't she get enough attention already?

When the day was done, I stopped by Sensei Wu's chamber before retiring to my quarters to ask if I could switch who I worked with. And I never could have guessed what would happen five days later when my request was granted.


	4. Cole

One month. One month I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty. And for an entire month, I had assumed that my identity was known only by Zane and myself.

It was the last day of October, and there was a chill in the air. Yet in the woods by the stream, a shirtless human sparred with me furiously, dodging my fists— or at least, what could count as fists on the suit.

"Are you not cold?" I asked, throwing Cole another punch. It was against the rules of Training Week to use any weapons, not even mentioning the danger using blades would entail. (Technically, the ninja weren't supposed to use any armor, either. But then again, I technically wasn't a ninja.)

"Are you kidding? I'm sweating bullets," he laughed, barely dodging a swift kick at his side. "I love training when it's cold outside."

"I'm glad to hear that," I said in an almost perky manner, then immediately regretted the statement. I was supposed to be the deadpan, serious one. But his cheerful disposition was infectious.

"Hey, do you know if Jay's fixed the refrigerator yet?" he asked, ignoring my out-of-character comment. "I've been on a cake withdrawal for, like, a _month,_ and I don't know how much longer I can last." He swung at my side, forcing me to back into a tree.

"I actually did some work on it this morning," I responded. There was something strangely calming about carrying on a conversation while we attempted to pummel each other. I briefly wondered if this was why the ninja frequently made bad puns during battle. I'd previously thought that they were nothing but distraction, but if talking made them feel more at ease and prevented excessive adrenaline, perhaps their fighting skills were not hindered by the act after all.

 _*WHACK!*_

"OW!"

It was my helmet which had received the blow, but it was Cole who yelped in pain. He shook his hand violently, trying to shake off the sting.

"Are you all right?!" I asked, immediately lowering my stance. As strong as the earth ninja was, I wondered if perhaps pitting him against a suit of armor while he himself was completely vulnerable had been an unwise decision.

"I'm fine," he said, rubbing his knuckles. He looked up at me and his eyes suddenly grew larger in shock. "Oh— oh geez."

"Wait, what happened?" I asked. I'd felt the force of the punch, but I'd dimmed my pain sensors before the training session in case one of us landed a hit, so I wasn't sure exactly how much damage had been dealt.

"I, uh…" he stared at my helmet where he'd hit it. "I kinda dented your suit." He looked down at his hands, as if he'd been unaware of his own strength.

I reached my "hand" up and felt the dent. It was much deeper than I'd expected— I'd have to repair it later. Thought it might be hard to repair considering I couldn't take the helmet off to see it… guess I'd need to request help from Zane.

"I'm sorry," Cole stammered, "I really didn't think—"

"No, it's fine. The metal didn't hit my head. I'll fix the helmet tonight," I responded. My voice was as cool as ever, but internally I was starting to panic. If there _was_ a head inside the helmet, it would definitely have received a nasty bruise— and the wearer of the suit would definitely have cried out in pain at least as loudly as the one who threw the punch. I could only hope that Cole somehow glossed over that.

But the black ninja was oddly silent. He hesitated, opened his mouth, rubbed his hand gingerly, and hesitated again.

"You, um… look, you don't have to pretend around me."

 _What?_ Although I currently had no heart, I felt the phantom sensation of it start beating fast against my chest.

"Pretend what?" I asked. I wasn't doing a very good job of keeping my voice even. What did he mean, pretend?

There was a long pause. Cole spoke slowly and deliberately, as if he'd planned out his next words very carefully in advance.

"Look, I know… how it feels… to be forgotten."

That was definitely not what I'd been expecting. However, I kept silent. He cleared his throat.

"I know how it feels when nobody can see you. I… I know how it feels to be abandoned by the people who are supposed to support you. And… I can imagine how feeling that way for long enough would make you desperate for attention."

Ouch. His words struck a chord. I tried to think of how to respond, but he continued to talk.

"On the Day of the Departed," he said, looking down, "You know which one I'm talking about— I learned what it felt like to be totally and completely alone. To try to say stuff to the people who are right in front of you, but not to be heard. To watch as they actually forget that you exist— and it was the most painful feeling in the world. That day, I made myself a promise to try and include everyone. I never wanted anyone to feel left out, like I had. And after a few weeks of trying to keep that promise…" He smiled weakly. "Well, I guess I became more aware of the other ghost in our group."

I heard a slight rattling noise and realized that it was the sound of clinking metal— I was trembling. Switching bodies, especially to ones that weren't meant to function as bodies, had odd side effects.

"S-so when did you figure it out?" I asked. My voice glitched out a little, as it did when I was low on battery.

"You mean the Samurai X thing? I had my suspicions from the minute I learned you were missing. I wasn't sure until you started living with us, though." He paused. "You did tell Zane, right? He's been worried sick about you, although he seems better lately…"

"Y-yeah, I did. A few weeks ago." I was still processing the new information. All of the times I'd felt alone, someone had empathized with me, and I didn't even know. It was hard to take in.

"I'm, um… I'm sorry if I'm getting too personal, or if you didn't want anyone to know… I'll keep your secret, and I won't bring this up again if you don't want me to, but I've been wanting to tell you this for a while now." He raised his head slightly and his black eyes locked onto my visor. "You aren't forgotten, and you aren't alone. There _are_ people who care about you, even if it doesn't feel like it." He paused again, then turned away.

"I'll shut up now," he mumbled.

I paused, unsure of exactly how to react, and then managed to laugh—

"For someone who doesn't talk a lot, you sure have a way with words." My voice was weak, and I was trying to stop it from glitching again. I looked down and my tone grew serious again.

"I… Cole… thank you." For as much as I missed my old body, I was glad for the Samurai X suit's lack of a crying mechanism.

Then— by some impulse— one of us initiated a hug. I don't even remember who it was, but I distinctly remember the feelings rushing through me when it happened. Zane was my partner, and although I never stated it I'd started to feel like Cyrus was my father; but I had always been envious of the brotherhood that the ninja shared with each other. I'd never expected to gain that level of friendship with the others for myself, but that day I felt the embrace of a brother.

After a moment, Cole pulled back. "You should probably fix that helmet before the others see it."

I nodded. "I'll have Zane work on it with me tonight. I'll just leave a note saying that we're repairing something down at the Samurai X cave." That was usually my go-to excuse for meeting with him alone. "And this time," I added, somewhat jokingly, "I won't even be lying."

A smug grin spread across the black ninja's face. "Right. Fixing one helmet. I'm _sure_ that's how you guys will spend the _entire_ time together. Alone. In the Samurai X cave," he said teasingly. I punched him in the arm.

"Can I take that as a sign that you're still good to spar for a while? I'm supposed to get at least five hours of training in today," Cole noted.

"The real question is, are _you_ still good to spar for a while?" I asked, and kicked the back of his shins without warning.

"Hey, no fair!" he yelped, but he grinned as he attempted to counter my attack.

As we dueled on into the evening, the leaves of the trees dropped one by one, the passage of time speeding rapidly onward.

(Author's Notes: Hello, all! First off, this isn't the last chapter, so don't stress. I just wanted to mention that I made an AMV for this dumb brotp that's pretty much never interacted in canon... if you wanna see it for some reason :'D It's definitely not essential to the fic, it's not even canon to it, so you don't have to watch it if you don't want to! This is just for those that would be interested. ^^ /BtpyZVA2sGc)


	5. Nya

Two months.

Two months I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty before the pesky water girl that caused my entire situation in the first place finally decided to take matters into her own hands.

It was right after dinner when it happened. Jay, having run out of new ways to get me to take off my helmet, was once again trying to taunt me with my boyfriend's cooking. Kai had given up on trying to creatively dodge his way around the major question to get intel, and had instead been conversing his theories with Lloyd. The green ninja still didn't care who I was, but he'd started to take up an interest in _why_ I was hiding my identity in the first place. Or, should I say, an annoyance— he was getting tired of the others' antics. Zane hadn't spoken on the subject unless he was spoken to first, in which case he would play along with the others, per my request. Cole… things had definitely changed between me and Cole. Whenever Jay and Kai's charades got out of hand, we'd exchange an are-you-kidding-me glance— often joined by Zane, who'd been updated on the fact that Cole was now also in the club.

Even Master Wu had joined forces with Jay and the others— although he was much more playful about it; he'd often suggest ridiculous theories just to watch the boys scramble for ways to make them possible. He might have still been on the oblivious side, but he certainly made the entire situation much more enjoyable. I personally theorized that _he_ theorized that I wasn't even anybody they knew, and that I was just keeping my identity a secret to mess with them.

The only person who was acting out of character was Nya. She'd been unusually silent all dinner, and hadn't even tried to hide her long durations of studying my (her upgraded) suit. Usually she at least pretended to be interested in the others' conversations while she formulated her theories to herself. But instead, she ate quietly, ignoring her brother's constant remarks ("I still think there might've been a way Skylor pulled it off— Nya, what do you think—? Anyway, Lloyd, she has the power of smoke, remember? Think she could've used it to teleport between our dinner and the Samurai X cave?") and Master Wu's cheerful encouraging ("In order to conceal one's identity, one must know how to conceal one's face… I do believe we have the makeup girl from New Ninjago City onboard"). It was after dinner when I learned why.

I was heading back to my chambers for the night when the water ninja brushed past me and pressed a piece of paper into my hand, not unlike what I had done to Zane over a month ago. I slipped it in the suit's secret compartment and walked the rest of the way to my room, but once inside with the door shut and locked, I immediately pulled it back out to read the message.

"Meet me in the forest tonight after the others are asleep for a duel by the stream. Samurai vs. Samurai. No weapons, except water for me and the suit for you. Training Week rules apply— I don't want anyone to get hurt, I just want to find out which of us is stronger. Yours,

-The _real_ Samurai X"

At first I figured that it must be a ploy to figure out my identity somehow, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Nya legitimately wanted to duel me. Well, either way, I was in. The battle terms seemed fair enough. Standard training rules included no blows to the head (the reason the terms had been changed with Cole was on account of my "wearing" a helmet), no blades of any kind, and no disrupting the environment or the wildlife inside it. In other words, jumping down from trees was acceptable, but breaking off their branches to use as weapons was not.

When nightfall came, I waited until I was certain everyone had gone to bed, then left a note in Zane's room alerting him of my whereabouts in case he woke up (he still dealt with the occasional nightmare and usually came to me for help) and headed into the forest. The spot Nya had chosen wasn't too far from where Cole and I sparred, so I was able to find my way without turning on any lights.

When I arrived, my rival was waiting for me rather impatiently by the stream, swirling it into the air in different patterns. She looked up and flinched when she saw me standing practically right next to her, then said—

"It took you long enough." She was trying to mimic my deadpan voice, and failing rather miserably at it.

 _Yeah, right,_ I thought. _You aren't so good at playing cool. Especially when people sneak up on you._

"Are you ready to begin?" I asked, taking a fighting stance. I expected her to return the motion, or perhaps even jump right into the battle. Instead, an unnerving smile suddenly crept across her face. Something was wrong.

"Actually," she said, "it occurred to me that battling might be seen by some as rather _brute_. I was thinking maybe we could handle this emotionally— you know, the _sophisticated_ way."

"What—" I started, but I had no time to think. I suddenly recoiled on the ground as a burning heat rose up from somewhere near my stomach. I dropped to my knees and barely had time to look at Nya's face before the pain hit and everything started coming together. Oh, no— oh, no, no, no, I understood what she was trying to do… what I had mistaken for malice on her face was actually an innocent look of triumph, but what she was _trying_ to do was going to—

 _"AUUUUUGH!"_ I cried. Burning liquid had been misplaced from the suit, and was already flooding my visors, short-circuiting the screens. I caught a glimpse of Nya's face dropping into confusion before my vision started going black.

"Wow, uh, are you okay? This is WAY more emotional than I intended…"

 _"I CaN'T SeE!"_ I screamed as my voice started glitching out.

"Whoa, whoa, it's just tears, calm down—" I could hear her voice, but I couldn't see the girl in front of me. A wave of panic washed over me as I tried to retain the information I knew, should the liquid come near my chip. My name was P.I.X.A.L., I was in the forest with a girl named Nya, and right now, Nya was trying to make me cry. Perhaps she figured that I would remove my helmet to wipe away the tears, or that simply the act of getting my stoic persona to cry would be enough to break me, but either way she had made a horrible assumption.

Anxiety started creeping into her voice as she realized something was legitimately wrong. "What's happening? Why can't you see? It-it's okay, I'll stop making you cry, it was just—"

My screams cut her off. I couldn't even think well enough to form coherent sentences, and I was growing ever more certain that my pain sensors would soon overload. My entire body shook violently as burning, raging, searing, agonizing streams of hot _oil_ started leaking out the cracks of my suit, triggering all the pain sensors I'd set up as a safeguard.

Now Nya was panicking as well. "What happened?! Oh my gosh, what's going on, talk to me— I'm so sorry, I don't know what I did wrong— I was just trying to— what do I do?!"

"mAkE IT-T ST-ToP," I tried to say, but the wretched liquid had hit the voice modifier. And given that that was the only voice I had, I would soon be rendered mute.

"How?!" she cried.

"T-ThE OIL," I howled, wishing desperately that I'd turned off the pain sensors before coming. "G-G-gET IT OUT!" I couldn't see her face, but I heard the water ninja's gasps of horror at the same time I felt a flood of hot oil escape from the visor's general area.

"Oil— oil— WHY IS THERE OIL?" she yelped, finally using her abilities to stream the liquid out and away from me.

"YOU WERE BENDING THE OIL FROM THE SUIT!" I screamed, but as I screamed it I felt the first small wave of relief.

"I'm so sorry—! I thought I was bending INSIDE your suit— I've practiced this on myself before to test my— I don't know how I could have possibly—" she stammered, unable to finish her sentences. I felt my voice grow stronger as more and more of the liquid torture was magically pulled out of my body.

"That's because there's NOTHING INSIDE TO BEND, GENIUS!" I yelled. My voice was still loud, but now it was of a different cause. As my pain subsided, I felt my anger slowly boiling up from my chest— and in a way, it hurt more than the oil had.

"What do you mean there's nothing inside? YOU'RE inside!" she cried, gathering the last of the oil into an airborne ball. At least, that's what I assumed she was doing; I hoped she wasn't simply polluting the stream with it.

"You IDIOT," I cried, feeling something in my logic centers go amiss. "I AM the suit!"

"My suit came to life?" Nya asked, her voice completely baffled. And then, although my vision was still blacked out, I swore I started seeing red.

"NO! Your suit did NOT come to life! _I_ came to life! I AM alive! And you never even acknowledged it!"

"I— I don't understand—" she started.

"AND THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM! You SHOULD understand. You should know EXACTLY who I am. I've been living with you for practically two years now! Going on missions with you! If it weren't for me, you and all your friends would probably have died SEVERAL TIMES BY NOW!"

"H-hey, look, I know it feels like a long time, but you've only been with us for two months—" Normally, I might appreciate the self-control she was exerting to not yell back at me, but at the moment I was too overwhelmed to think.

"NO, I HAVEN'T. I'VE LITERALLY BEEN LIVING WITH YOU FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS. TWO! YEARS! AND DO YOU KNOW THAT IN THOSE TWO YEARS, YOU'VE NEVER EVEN SAID MY _NAME_?"

"Are— are you a ghost that's been living on the ship? I promise, if you are, we mean you no harm—"

Cole's words suddenly came back to me. My breathing grew ragged and heavy. "Yeah," I snapped, "I might as well be!" I thought Nya had gotten all the oil out of my system, but I felt a small amount flood my now-useless visor once again.

"But then— how can you be mad at me? If we've never even interacted—"

"Oh, we've interacted, all right," I said. For some illogical reason, I felt myself start to laugh— but the laughs were interrupted by hiccups and glitches. "We've interacted. When I saved your life and all of your friends', and you didn't even know it. When I gave you an important piece of information, and you ignored me! When I tried," I laughed, "to save my BOYFRIEND by redirecting the electricity in his system— a move that _I MADE UP,_ mind you— and you gave HIM all the credit!"

As the visor started cooling down, some of the screen started coming back on, although I was pretty sure parts of it had been damaged permanently. I could barely make out Nya's face as she finally started putting two and two together.

"Oh, and speaking of my boyfriend," I added, not letting up, "when sentient tech starts talking in gibberish, there's a little something called RE-ALIGNING THEIR NEURAL INPUTS. NOT! GIVING THEM! A NEW! BINARY! POWER! CORD!"

The water ninja's voice became soft. "You're…"

"Do you even KNOW what replacing the binary power cord DOES? IT! CLEARS! THE! HOST'S! EXTENSIONS! INCLUDING any inserted hard-drives, USB cables, and, I don't know, SENTIENT ANDROID'S NEUROCHIPS that are still linked to the host!"

"… _P.I.X.A.L._ "

I don't know why, but hearing someone other than Zane say my name felt like a wave of emotions suddenly poured out of my body. A lot of my burning anger washed out of the cracks of the stolen suit, leaving me feeling completely empty— figuratively and literally.

I'd worn out my yelling voice. Trembling, I switched the voice mod back to my original one— back to P.I.X.A.L.'s voice.

"You could've _killed_ me," I said softly. "You could've killed me and you wouldn't have even known it before it was too late." My vision was still fairly blurry, but I saw the impact my statement had on Nya as the truth sank in. She was quiet for a minute, and I wouldn't have even known how to break the silence had I wanted to. Finally, she asked weakly—

"Then how did you survive?"

I stood up, facing her directly. "I knew what you were about to do, and I didn't have much time to think. So I briefly took over Zane's body and transferred my neurochip into the nearest relatively body-shaped thing I could find."

"The Samurai X suit?" she asked quietly. It was a rhetorical question, but I nodded and replied anyway.

"The Samurai X suit." Holding my arms out, I pressed a button and felt the visor slide up into the helmet. Of course, I couldn't see, but I could somehow _feel_ the girl's horror as she stared, where a head should be, into an empty void. I pressed the button again and she came back into vision, remarkably less composed than she had been before. There was another moment of awkward silence. I noted that I seemed very adapt at producing those. Finally, I turned around.

"So that's it," I said. "Now you know who I am. And we should both probably be heading back to the Bounty. I personally need to go back down and get some fresh oil to replace—"

"P.I.X.A.L., wait." I felt a hand clasp my shoulder, and I shivered a little from the unexpected motion.

"I… I know anything I say can't possibly make up for my actions. But I— I'm really, _really_ sorry."

"It's fine," I said, wondering when I'd started picking up more casual slang like "fine." I tried to turn away from her again.

"No, it's _not_. Nothing I've been doing is fine. I've been ignoring you, and forgetting you, and acting like you don't exist, when you're a _really important_ part of our team. You're right, I don't know how many times you've saved our lives, or how many of those times one of us has contributed the victory to Zane. Or how many times _I've_ done those things specifically. So, I'm really, truly sorry. But—" she hesitated. "Why didn't you ever _say_ anything?"

I scoffed quietly. "I tried. You couldn't hear me."

"I meant through Zane. He loves you more than anything, you know. He would've said something to us if you asked him to." Her face showed genuine concern, which made me uncomfortable. It was bad enough dealing with my own emotions, which were still confusing and relatively new to me.

"What would I have said?" I replied. "He always told you when I had something to say. But nobody ever commented back to me. How was I supposed to respond to that? Demand that you all thank me whenever I do something good?" I shook my head and looked down. It was somewhat hard to shake the helmet given how I'd had to attach it to the rest of the suit. I felt a sudden, almost violent sense of being displaced. I missed my body— both forms of it. Even existing as a phantom on Zane's screen was better than being stuck in something so heavy and somehow so hollow at the same time. It was disorienting.

"P.I.X.A.L., I—" Nya's eyes suddenly flared like always they did when she got an idea. It was a trait she shared with her brother. "I think," she said, apparently catching herself from saying something she shouldn't, "we should go back." She then took my hand without warning and started heading toward home. I shivered again, but too tired to argue or really even think any more, I nodded stiffly and let her drag me through the forest as we neared the Destiny's Bounty. Whatever she'd been about to say, I was sure I'd find out soon enough.

(Author's notes: *nervous laughter* Well, here it is, the concept scene that started this entire fanfic :'D You get bonus points if you can figure 1] the mistake I made which deviates from the canon of Ninjago! and 2] how I SHOULD have fixed said mistake. I'll explain the answers in tomorrow's chapter, which will also be the end of this story, so stay tuned and junk!)


	6. Everyone

Four months. I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty for four months. And for the past _two_ months, I had been living there under my real name.

The morning after Nya had tried and succeeded to find out my identity by making me cry (though not in the way she'd intended), I'd revealed my secret to the rest of the group. Kai had been open about his shock while Jay insisted that he'd known all along, despite the fact I was probably the _only_ life-form in Ninjago that he hadn't guessed. Wu had said he should've figured it out sooner, which made me feel slightly better, and I was pretty sure Lloyd still held a grudge against me for keeping my identity secret for so long and thus forcing him to live through the others' constant guessing. The rest of the day went mostly normal.

After that day, however, everyone started acting… different. I thought at first that they were perhaps getting used to knowing who I was, but the behavior kept up. Nobody was really being _mean,_ but everyone seemed to be… avoiding me? And whenever they spoke to me, they seemed nervous. Even Zane fell into the pattern, which made me extremely anxious. I wasn't sure if I'd done something wrong, or if something had happened that I wasn't aware of, but I felt completely alienated.

So one morning after this behavior had been happening for almost two months, I was about to approach Nya about the issue— I assumed that due to the time it started, she had something to do with it—when Zane asked me to meet with him after breakfast. I agreed, aware that the others (although talking to each other) seemed very interested in our conversation.

While Lloyd and Nya cleared the plates, I followed Zane to his quarters, feeling very much like the others were watching us. However, they did not follow.

Once we reached his door, we suddenly stopped. I asked why.

"P.I.X.A.L.," he said suddenly, "I am about to do something, but I need you to trust me. Okay?" His voice was serious, but gentle and not grave. He also posed the question as a request, rather than a demand.

"O-okay," I responded, hoping that whatever was about to happen might explain the recent odd behaviors of the others. He pulled me in close and ran his hand up to the back of my head, opening the port in the back. I trembled violently as he clasped my neurochip, subsequently creating the illusion of someone taking ahold of my entire body. Then I blacked out.

—

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back, barely opening my eyes to see Nya, Lloyd, Kai, Jay, Zane, Cole, and Master Wu surrounding me.

 _Opening… my… eyes?_

They shot open as I took in a deep breath of oxygen, but I couldn't move my other limbs yet. After a few moments, sensation began to come back to me. I sat up slowly, flexing my joints. There were more than before I had blacked out.

"How do you feel?" asked Cole. The faces around me were mostly nervous, but they displayed excitement, too.

"I feel fine, but what…?" I didn't finish my sentence, for I looked down at my hands— which were smooth and white.

"DO YA LIKE IT?" Kai asked, a little loudly. I flinched along with the others in the room.

"Uh, Kai? Maybe we should show her before she decides," Lloyd said. He seemed more at ease than the others. He then leaned down and pulled a full-length mirror from off the floor, holding it up to me so I could see myself.

My reflection, sitting on a reflection of Zane's bed, stared back at me. She had a normal-shaped body, made from what felt like titanium with a smooth white coating of paint. Yet the many joints on her allowed for much more movement than the clunky suit of armor, and her clear green eyes saw with a degree of clarity that she hadn't realized she'd lost. Probably most surprising of all, her body was adorned with new garments, which upon closer inspection looked to be silk. A surprisingly well-made dress, patterned to resemble the updated gear of Samurai X, flowed across the carefully shaped curves that made up my new body.

"I…" I was at a loss for words.

"I love it," I finally said. I looked around me, awestruck. "Wait… who's idea was this?"

Nya beamed down at me. "The idea and original sketches were mine," she said, "but I had a lot of help."

"I helped with the inner wiring!" Jay piped up.

"And Zane programmed it so that it would be compatible with your neurochip," Cole added.

"Kai did a lot of the sewing on the dress," Lloyd chimed in teasingly, earning him a whack on the head from Kai.

"Well, it was Cole who just happened to know where to go to get the right kinds of fabric," the red ninja added defensively.

The black ninja grinned. "Hey, I'm not denying it."

"And Lloyd kept the stuff hidden in his room until it was ready, since, you know, you sneak into Zane's room every other night," Jay snickered.

"I'll have you know—" Zane started, but Master Wu cut him off.

"And I," said the old man, "was supposedly in charge of keeping you from finding out, although I'd say that my pupils probably didn't need any help in that. They were very cautious… too worried about ruining the surprise, I'd say." He smiled knowingly at them.

Some feeling inside my chest rose up. "You all did this… for me?"

"Well, duh," Nya said cheerfully, "I wasn't about to go the rest of my life with a bad track record. And the boys were happy to help."

"Except when Kai got Nya's measurements wrong and Nya didn't notice," Jay amended. "That was a disaster to fix."

"Hey, I made ONE mistake—" Kai started.

"It did set us back almost an entire week," Zane laughed good-naturedly.

I cocked my head, confused. "Wait—" I processed my own height, chest, and waist measurements, then scanned Nya for hers. They matched exactly. "Why did you make me the same dimensions as Nya?"

"Well," Nya said sheepishly, "For one, Kai already makes me clothing, so we figured it would be easier on him—" I stole a glance at her brother, who was mouthing "zip it" angrily. "—And two, I figured you might still want to wear the Samurai X suit into battle and stuff, so I had to make sure it would fit you. And since I originally built the suit for myself, the most logical route to take was to match our measurements."

"The suit still needs some re-adjustments, by the way," Cole said, "before you can use it with a body again. But we couldn't really work on it while you were inside, so we figured we'd wait until after transferring you over.

I looked around with an overwhelming feeling of… happiness? Gratitude? Relief? I got down from the bed and tried to stand up, though I was shaking.

"Thank you all so much… I… I don't know what to say," I stammered.

"That's enough for me," Nya said, and pulled me into a hug.

"I agree," Zane said with a huge grin, and wrapped his arms around us to crush us both.

"Hey, don't leave me out," I heard Cole laugh as he joined the pile. Before I knew it, everyone in the room (including Wu!) had formed a crushing support circle around me and each other. As individual phrases were drowned out in the mutual teasing and laughing around me, I— once again accidentally prompted by Nya— began to cry.

Two years.

Two years I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty, and I finally,

 _finally,_

felt like I was home.

—

(Author's Notes: yaaay, we did it! XD I really hope you guys enjoyed this ending! A couple of notes: First of all, thank you all SO much for your nice reviews, they've seriously been such a confidence boost for me and inspire me to keep writing. I can't put into words how happy it makes me when somebody says that something I've written has put a smile on their face!

Secondly, I promised to explain the continuity error from the canon of the show that was in the previous chapter. Guest user "A Random Person" cleverly pointed out that it was _Nya's_ idea that SX2 was actually Skylor, but while they are correct, that actually wasn't what I was referring to! (I thought that after Nya shared her theory with Kai, he jumped onboard. You still get points for pointing that out though :D) My error is actually in the timing of PIXAL's transfer to her new body. After rewatching Scavengers multiple times, I realized that even after Nya re-enters the room (with a new binary power cord), PIXAL is still in Zane's body, because she conducts the total electrical overload to fend off the Vermillion Warriors. Directly afterwards, the suit is missing. Due to this, the only moment when PIXAL could've performed the switch to the SX2 suit was _during the electrical overload,_ which, while possible, would imply that her neurochip is... actually still in Zane... woops. [The Hageman brothers said time-travel could be involved in the new SX2, so I fully expect a good explanation!]

Third, I tried to include a link to my AMV in the Cole chapter, but FF apparently doesn't like links. You can find the video by googling "ninjago astronaut amv" or going to my youtube channel, Candaru Driemor.

Last but not least, I drew a quick picture from this last chapter just for fun, which you can find at /j2NVRG. Thank you all for sticking with me through this story and I hope you'll be with me for my next one! ^^)


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